Love Thy Neighbour

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Love Thy Neighbour
Rudolph Walker as Bill Reynolds and Jack Smethurst as Eddie Booth
Genre	Sitcom
Creator(s)	Vince Powell & Harry Driver
Starring	Rudolph Walker Jack Smethurst Nina Baden-Semper Kate Williams
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	56
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Thames Television
Original run	13 April 1972 – 22 January 1976
Links
IMDb profile

Love Thy Neighbour was a British sitcom that ran from 13 April 1972 to 22 January 1976, made by Thames Television for ITV. It starred Jack Smethurst, Rudolph Walker, Nina Baden-Semper and Kate Williams. There was also a movie spin-off and a brief sequel set in Australia.

The series (and movie) was created and largely written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, and was based on a suburban white working class couple who unwittingly found themselves living next door to a black couple, and the white couple's attempts to come to terms with this.

Love Thy Neighbour was hugely popular in the 1970s. During that era Britain struggled to come to terms with its recently arrived population of black immigrants, and Love Thy Neighbour exemplified this struggle. It aroused great controversy for many of the same reasons as the earlier (and more subtle) Till Death Us Do Part - which was the model for the American hit comedy series All in the Family. The views of the white male character (Smethurst) were presented in such a way as to make him appear stupid and bigoted, and were contrasted with the more tolerant attitude of his wife. His use of terms such as "nig-nog" to refer to his black neighbour, despite being intended as ironic by the script-writers, attracted considerable criticism from viewers. The male black character was in contrast educated and sophisticated, although stubborn and also capable of racism.

Those invoved in the making of the programme have said that the humour was based upon the absurdity of the bigotry presented.^{[citation needed]}

Love Thy Neighbour is now seen as a 1970s period piece due to its dated and politically incorrect handling of issues of race. The first series was however released on a Region 2 DVD in October 2003, with series 2 following in May 2004. The film version was also released on DVD in 2004.

Smethurst and Walker appeared as themselves, sitting in the Thames Television bar during the film version of Man About The House. The assumption was given that they were taking a break from filming the TV series.

1 Cast
2 Trivia
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Cast

Eddie Booth (Jack Smethurst) is a socialist. His world is turned on it's head when Bill and Barbie Reynolds move in next door. He is even more annoyed when Bill gets a job at the same factory as him, and refers to him as a "nig-nog", "Sambo", "choc-ice" or "King Kong. He also has a tendency to call Pakistanis or Indians names like "Gunga Din" and "Ali Baba".

Joan Booth (Kate Williams) is Eddie's wife. She does not share her bigoted husbands opinion of their black neighbours, and is great friends with Barbie.

Bill Reynolds (Rudolph Walker) is a West Indian and a Conservative. Whenever Eddie tries to outdo him, Bill usually ends up having the last laugh. He occasionally refers to Eddie as a "white honky" and "snowflake", and doesn't like catching Eddie staring at his wife.

Barbie Reynolds (Nina Baden-Semper) is Bill's wife and gets along very well with her next door neighbour, Joan Booth. Eddie is sometimes fascinated by her, especially in the pilot episode when she bent over in a short skirt.

[edit] Trivia

In the original version of the pilot episode (which has never been screened), the role of Joan was played by Gwendolyn Watts. The original pilot is featured on the Series One DVD (disc four).